Kokua Line June Watanabe

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State cuts airport parking grace period to 10 minutes

Question: I recently visited Hilo Airport to pick up some visitors. Upon leaving the parking lot, I was told I owed $1 even though I had only been there for 12 minutes. I thought the governor had instituted a 30-minute free period so people could do what I was there to do, greet and assist arriving passengers. The cashier said effective March 1, the grace period is now only 10 minutes!

Q: Has the 30-minute grace period for parking at Honolulu Airport been changed? On Thursday, I was charged $1 for about 20 minutes parking. When I asked about the grace period I was told, "Changed to 10 minutes!" I am concerned whether the attendant is ripping off the public.

Answer: The grace period quietly was shortened to 10 minutes at all state airports in March.

The state Department of Transportation instituted the 30-minute free parking policy in 2003 after tighter security measures went into effect, restricting parking at loading and unloading zones.

At that time, it was announced as a pilot project.

Before that, "people were just waiting in front of arrivals for friends and family members coming in, creating congestion," noted Sidney Hayakawa, state airports administrator.

However, last year, the Transportation Department opened "cell phone waiting lots," where people can park and wait for free at each airport, he said.

Because of that, the grace period was shortened.

The lot at Honolulu Airport, located on Aolele Street between the Delta and United cargo facilities, is open daily from 5 a.m. until 10 p.m.

Q: The Board of Water Supply has a manmade lily pond along Nuuanu Pali Drive. There's sort of an auwai-like (irrigation ditch) stream bed that feeds water into the pond, but the water has stopped for several months. The pond is dry and the lilies have all died. What's going on? When does the BWS expect the water to return?

A: Thanks to you, the Board of Water Supply sent a crew to check the pond and discovered, upstream, that a "big tree" had fallen into the stream, blocking the flow of water, spokesman Su Shin said.

The lily pond is near the agency's aerator facility, but the stream and surrounding area are under the jurisdiction of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

DLNR was contacted "and they said they would send crews up to check on it and would remove the tree," Shin said.

It wasn't certain last week when that would happen.

The drying up of the lily pond is not any indicator of Oahu's water supply.

The pond is "purely aesthetic," Shin said.

Most people may not realize it, she said, but all potable water provided by the Board of Water Supply on Oahu comes from ground water.

Unlike some of the neighbor islands, "We have zero surface water sources on Oahu," she said.

Also, the facility near the lily pond is an aerator, not a water source or pump facility.